The Myth

In Stanley Tong’s mixed-genre fantasy adventure, the past is not as interesting as we’re led to believe.

“I only do scientific research. I’m no tomb raider.”

You’re not wrong, William. Tomb Raider this is not. I don’t know what it is about Jackie Chan and globe-trotting epic adventures, but they just never really go hand in hand that well. There’s his Armour of God series, of which the first two are decent enough, but are arguably the weakest of his 80s series, well behind Project A and Police Story. There’s the bafflingly terrible CZ12, a film I’ve been talking about since 2015 but have yet to actually cover. And then there’s this. His most mediocre of the lot. 

Directed by Stanley Tong – whose work with Chan varies from the pretty good Rumble in the Bronx to whatever the hell Kung Fu Yoga was – The Myth tells of an archaeologist called (you guessed it), Jack Chan. He is visited by his friend William (Tony Leung Ka-fai), a physicist, who wants Chan’s help in finding a mysterious tomb that supposedly floats in mid-air. He’s planning to build some anti-gravity lab or something, and has major funders who are heavily invested. Jack goes along, but is haunted by a recurring dream that he is real-life Qin dynasty general Meng Yi, tasked with protecting Korean princess Ok-soo (Kim Hee-sun), offered as concubine to the emperor.

 

The most striking aspect of The Myth is how all over the place the story seems to be, constantly switching between fantasy adventure and historical drama, but instead of giving us two epic stories, we get far less. Both plots feel insanely light on content, despite either being only about an hour long each. Perhaps there wasn’t enough time to let anything develop properly, meaning we only see the most basic story skeleton. Or perhaps it’s the fact that as soon as one becomes interesting and pulls you into its world and story, the movie decides now is the time to switch to the other time period. It gives the impression of flipping between two films on different channels, and not really paying much attention to either. 

And that’s the issue that permeates the entire movie. There’s a sense of half-assedness to everything. The ending fight, done in a weightless environment, is fantastic in concept, but done without a tonne of fresh ideas or ways to use the environment. It’s a shame because the battles, once more, are a highlight of even Chan’s most boring films. The high concept mythical final act is in line with what I love about Indiana Jones, and the idea of finding a zero gravity tomb powered by a mysterious meteorite is exactly the sort of out-there nonsense that I’d have loved. But the buildup in the flashbacks feels very underwhelming. 

I like it when people try new things, and the dual story takes the typical archaeology action plot seen in Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider and Uncharted, and does something interesting by showing us the historical lead-up to the floating tomb. In another story, it would have worked a lot better, but “there’s a meteorite and an unrelated magic elixir” is about as weak a payoff for any flashback as you can get. You wish that the filmmakers would have just stuck to the typical method of storytelling and shown Jack uncovering the historical context himself, bit by bit.

But then we wouldn’t see general Meng standing atop a pile of soldiers, slaying them one at a time, so you gotta pick your battles. Honestly, I’m not super mad at this film. It wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever seen by Chan – and as the years go on it only stands to increase its ranking – but it’s just kind of forgettable, which is such a sin considering how full of promise the idea is. There’s OK green screen stuff – I’ve certainly seen worse even now, eighteen years on – but it’s all just so bland. I don’t want to say that sometimes the past needs to stay hidden, I don’t hate having seen it, but it might not have been worth the trip. 

Verdict: More tediously mediocre than aggressively bad, The Myth fits squarely in the ever-increasing pile of so-so Jackie Chan films that could have been so much better. 

Overall entertainment: 5/10
Violence: Easily the best part/10
Sex: Some steamy hypothermia rescue
Villains: Eh, who cares
Bad CGI: Typical low-budget stuff, but two stand out – the python, and Jack’s baffling Looney Tunes style backward flip into the waterfall.
The Mercury: OK I wrote that previous sentence before the mercury appeared. That’s the worst CGI in the film.
Professor Koo: Can fight, for some reason.

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The Myth (2005)
Also known as: 神話
Cantonese

Director: Stanley Tong
Writers: Stanley Tong, Li Haishu, Wang Hui-ling

CAST

Jackie Chan – Jack Chan, Meng Yi
Tony Leung Ka-fai – William
Kim Hee-sun – Princess Ok-soo
Choi Min-soo – General Choi
Mallika Sherawat – Samantha
Patrick Tam – General Xu Gui
Shao Bing – Nangong Yan
Ken Lo – Dragon